Joshua Chamberlain Early life and education Where was Chamberlin born Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine, Who was his mother and father Sarah Dupee (nee Brastow) and Joshua Chamberlain What day was he born on September 8, 1828.
What was unique about chamberlins family tree
What was unique about joshua chamberlain's family tree
Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine, the son of Sarah Dupee (nee Brastow) and Joshua Chamberlain on September 8, 1828. Chamberlain was of English ancestry, and could trace his family line back to twelfth century England, during the reign of King Stephen. He was the oldest of five children. It is said that he was his mother's favorite while his father was tough on him. He was very involved in his church, mostly singing in the choir. His mother encouraged him to become a preacher while his father wanted him to join the military, but he felt a reluctance towards both options. He suffered a speech impediment until shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College. He entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1848 with the help of a local tutor, professor William Hyde. Chamberlain learned to read Ancient Greek and Latin in order to pass the entrance exam. While at Bowdoin he met many people who would influence his life, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, the wife of Bowdoin professor Calvin Stowe. Chamberlain would often go to listen to her read passages from what would later become her celebrated novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. He also joined the Peucinian Society, a group of students with Federalist leanings. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society and a brother of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, Chamberlain graduated in 1852.  He married Fanny Adams, cousin and adopted daughter of a local clergyman, in 1855, and they had five children, one of whom was born too prematurely to survive and two of whom died in infancy. Chamberlain studied for three additional years at Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine, returned to Bowdoin, and began a career in education as a professor of rhetoric. He eventually went on to teach every subject in the curriculum with the exception of science and mathematics. In 1861 he was appointed Professor of Modern Languages. He was fluent in nine languages other than English: Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.  Chamberlain's great-grandfathers were soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. One, Franklin Chamberlain, was a sergeant at the Siege of Yorktown. His grandfather, also named Joshua Chamberlain, was a colonel in the local militia during the War of 1812 and was court-martialed (but exonerated) for his part in the humiliating Battle of Hampden, which led to the sacking of Bangor and Brewer by British forces. His father also had served during the abortive Aroostook War of 1839. CANNOTANSWER
Chamberlain was of English ancestry, and could trace his family line back to twelfth century England, during the reign of King Stephen.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (born Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, September 8, 1828February 24, 1914) was an American college professor from Maine who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army. He became a highly respected and decorated Union officer, reaching the rank of brigadier general (and brevet major general). He is best known for his gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Chamberlain was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1862, and fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He became commander of the regiment in June 1863 when losses at the Battle of Chancellorsville elevated the original commander, Colonel Adelbert Ames, to brigade command. During the second day's fighting at Gettysburg on July 2, Chamberlain's regiment occupied the extreme left of the Union lines at Little Round Top. Chamberlain's men withstood repeated assaults from the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment and finally drove the Confederates away with a downhill bayonet charge. Chamberlain was severely wounded while commanding a brigade during the Second Battle of Petersburg in June 1864, and was given what was intended to be a deathbed promotion to brigadier general. In April 1865, he fought at the Battle of Five Forks and was given the honor of commanding the Union troops at the surrender ceremony for the infantry of Robert E. Lee's Army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

After the war, he entered politics as a Republican and served four one-year terms of office as the 32nd Governor of Maine from 1867 to 1871. After leaving office, he returned to his alma mater, Bowdoin College, serving as its president until 1883. He died in 1914 at age 85 due to complications from the wound that he received at Petersburg.

Early life and education
Chamberlain was born in Brewer, Maine, the son of Sarah Dupee (née Brastow) and Joshua Chamberlain, on September 8, 1828.  Chamberlain was of English ancestry and could trace his family line back to twelfth-century England, during the reign of King Stephen. Chamberlain's great-grandfather Ebenezer, was a New Hampshire soldier in the French and Indian War, and the American Revolutionary War. Chamberlain's grandfather Joshua, was a ship builder, and colonel during the War of 1812, before moving his family to a Brewer farm in 1817. Chamberlain's father Joshua served as a lieutenant-colonel in the Aroostook War.

Chamberlain was the first of five children.  His father named him after James Lawrence, and favored a military career for his son, while Chamberlain's mother wanted him to become a minister. Chamberlain became a member of the Congregational Church in Brewer in the mid-1840s, and attended Major Whiting's military academy in Ellsworth.  Chamberlain then taught himself Greek so he could be admitted to Bowdoin College in 1848. At college, Chamberlain was a member of the Peucinian Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He taught Sunday school in Brunswick during his freshman and sophomore years, and led the choir at the Congregational Church-First Parish Church during his Junior and Senior years. Chamberlain graduated in 1852, then entered the Bangor Theological Seminary for three years of study.  Besides studying in Latin and German, Chamberlain eventually mastered French, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac.

On 7 December 1855, Chamberlain married Fanny Adams, cousin and adopted daughter of a local clergyman.  Their first child was a girl named Grace Dupee, born on 16 October 1856.  Their son Harold Wylls was born on 10 October 1858.  A second and fourth child died early. In the fall of 1855, Chamberlain returned to Bowdoin, and began a career in education, first as an instructor in logic and natural theology, then as professor of rhetoric and oratory. He eventually went on to teach every subject in the curriculum with the exception of science and mathematics. In 1861 he was appointed professor of modern languages, which he held until 1865.

American Civil War

Early career

At the beginning of the American Civil War, Chamberlain believed the Union needed to be supported against the Confederacy by all those willing. On several occasions, Chamberlain spoke freely of his beliefs during his class, urging students to follow their hearts in regards to the war while maintaining that the cause was just. Of his desire to serve in the War, he wrote to Maine's Governor Israel Washburn, Jr., "I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery." Many faculty at Bowdoin did not feel his enthusiasm for various reasons and Chamberlain was subsequently granted a leave of absence (supposedly to study languages for two years in Europe). He then promptly enlisted unbeknownst to those at Bowdoin and his family. Offered the colonelcy of the 20th Maine Regiment, he declined, according to his biographer, John J. Pullen, preferring to "start a little lower and learn the business first." He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment on August 8, 1862, under the command of Col. Adelbert Ames. The 20th was assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps in the Union Army of the Potomac.  One of Chamberlain's younger brothers, Thomas Chamberlain, was also an officer of the 20th Maine, and another, John Chamberlain, visited the regiment at Gettysburg as a member of the U.S. Christian Commission until appointed as a chaplain in another Maine Volunteer regiment.
The 20th Maine fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg, suffering relatively small numbers of casualties in the assaults on Marye's Heights, but were forced to spend a miserable night on the freezing battlefield among the many wounded from other regiments. Chamberlain chronicled this night well in his diary and went to great length discussing his having to use bodies of the fallen for shelter and a pillow while listening to the bullets zip into the corpses.
The 20th missed the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 due to an outbreak of smallpox in their ranks (which was caused by an errant smallpox vaccine), keeping them on guard duty in the rear. Chamberlain was promoted to colonel of the regiment in June 1863 upon the promotion of Ames.

Battle of Gettysburg

Chamberlain became most famous for his achievements during the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 2, the second day of the battle, Union forces were recovering from initial setbacks and hastily regrouping into defensive positions on a line of hills south of the town. Sensing the momentary vulnerability of the Union forces, the Confederates began an attack against the Union left flank. Chamberlain's brigade, commanded by Col. Strong Vincent, was sent to defend Little Round Top by the army's Chief of Engineers, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren. Chamberlain found himself and the 20th Maine at the far left end of the entire Union line. He quickly understood the strategic significance of the small hill, and the need for the 20th Maine to hold the Union left at all costs. The men from Maine waited until troops from the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col. William C. Oates, charged up the hill, attempting to flank the Union position. Time and time again the Confederates struck, until the 20th Maine was almost doubled back upon itself. With many casualties and ammunition running low, Col. Chamberlain recognized the dire circumstances and ordered his left wing (which was now looking southeast, compared to the rest of the regiment, which was facing west) to initiate a bayonet charge. From his report of the day: "At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough." While battlefield conditions make it unlikely that many men heard Chamberlain's order, most historians believe he initiated the charge.

The 20th Maine charged down the hill, with the left wing wheeling continually to make the charging line swing like a hinge, thus creating a simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver, capturing 101 of the Confederate soldiers and successfully saving the flank. This version of the battle was popularized by the book The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg. Chamberlain sustained one slight wound in the battle, one when a shot hit his sword scabbard and bruised his thigh. Chamberlain also personally took a Confederate prisoner with his saber during the charge. After initiating the maneuver, he came upon a Confederate officer wielding a revolver who quickly fired, narrowly missing his face. Chamberlain remained steadfast, and with his sword at the officer's throat accepted the man's arms and surrender. The pistol Chamberlain captured at Gettysburg can still be seen on display in the Civil War exhibit of the Maine State Museum. For his tenacity at defending Little Round Top, he was known by the sobriquet Lion of the Round Top. Prior to the battle, Chamberlain was quite ill, developing malaria and dysentery. Later, due to this illness, he was taken off active duty until he recovered.

For his "daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top", Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor citation

Siege of Petersburg

In April 1864, Chamberlain returned to the Army of the Potomac and was promoted to brigade commander shortly before the Siege of Petersburg and given command of the 1st Brigade, First Division, V Corps. In a major action on June 18, during the Second Battle of Petersburg, Chamberlain was shot through the right hip and groin, the bullet exiting his left hip. Despite the injury, Chamberlain withdrew his sword and stuck it into the ground in order to keep himself upright to dissuade the growing resolve for retreat. He stood upright for several minutes until he collapsed and lay unconscious from loss of blood. The wound was considered mortal by the division's surgeon, who predicted he would perish; Chamberlain's incorrectly recorded death in battle was reported in the Maine newspapers, and Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gave Chamberlain a battlefield promotion to the rank of brigadier general after receiving an urgent recommendation on June 19 from corps commander Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren: "He has been recommended for promotion for gallant and efficient conduct on previous occasion and yesterday led his brigade against the enemy under most destructive fire. He expresses the wish that he may receive the recognition of his services by promotion before he dies for the gratification of his family and friends." Not expected to live, Chamberlain displayed surprising will and courage, and with the support of his brother Tom, was back in command by November. Although many, including his wife Fanny, urged Chamberlain to resign, he was determined to serve through the end of the war.

In early 1865, Chamberlain regained command of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of V Corps, and he continued to act with courage and resolve. On March 29, 1865, his brigade participated in a major skirmish on the Quaker Road during Grant's final advance that would finish the war. Despite losses, another wound (in the left arm and chest that almost caused amputation), and nearly being captured, Chamberlain was successful and brevetted to the rank of major general by President Abraham Lincoln. Chamberlain gained the name "Bloody Chamberlain" at Quaker Road. Chamberlain kept a Bible and framed picture of his wife in his left front "chest" pocket. When a Confederate shot at Chamberlain, the bullet went through his horse's neck, hit the picture frame, entered under Chamberlain's skin in the front of his chest, traveled around his body under the skin along the rib, and exited his back. To all observers Union and Confederate, it appeared that he was shot through his chest. He continued to encourage his men to attack.

Appomattox

On the morning of April 9, 1865, Chamberlain learned of the desire by General Robert E. Lee to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia when a Confederate staff officer approached him under a flag of truce. "Sir," he reported to Chamberlain, "I am from General Gordon. General Lee desires a cessation of hostilities until he can hear from General Grant as to the proposed surrender." The next day, Chamberlain was summoned to Union headquarters where Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin informed him that he had been selected to preside over the parade of the Confederate infantry as part of their formal surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 12.

Chamberlain was thus responsible for one of the most poignant scenes of the American Civil War. As the Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors, Chamberlain, on his own initiative, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. In memoirs written forty years after the event, Chamberlain described what happened next:

Chamberlain stated that his salute to the Confederate soldiers was unpopular with many Unionists, but he defended his action in his posthumously published 1915 memoir The Passing of the Armies. Many years later, Gordon, in his own memoirs, called Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army." Gordon never mentioned the anecdote until after he read Chamberlain's account, more than 40 years later.

In his book Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War, S. C. Gwynne states that this particular account is "one of the most cherished of the bogus Appomattox stories", claiming that "there is no convincing evidence that it ever happened" and that "none of the thirty thousand other people who saw the surrender noted any such event" (p. 298). "The source was Chamberlain, a true hero and, also, in subsequent years, one of the great embellishers of the war. His memoirs are an adjectival orgy, often reflecting the world as he wanted it to be instead of the way it was. For one thing, he did not command the troops at the ceremony, as he claimed, and thus couldn’t order the men to salute. His story, moreover, changed significantly over the years." Gwynne also states that "Its staying power was mostly rooted in the fact that Gordon never refuted it. The rebel general apparently liked it, and it reflected well on him, as the time went by Gordon added his own liberal embellishments, including the suggestion that Lee himself had led the Army through town. The two generals would clearly have preferred this distinctly Walter Scott-like sequence, described in countless books and memoirs, to the decidedly less romantic one that actually took place." Gywnne's cited reference for this disclosure is Lee's Last Retreat by William Marvel (pp. 194–95).

In all, Chamberlain served in 20 battles and numerous skirmishes, was cited for bravery four times, had six horses shot from under him, and was wounded six times.

Post-war service

 
Chamberlain left the U.S. Army soon after the war ended, going back to his home state of Maine. Due to his immense popularity, he served as Governor of Maine for four one-year terms after he won election as a Republican. His victory in 1866 set the record for the most votes and the highest percentage for any Maine governor by that time. He would break his own record in 1868. During his time in office, he was attacked by those angered by his support for capital punishment and by his refusal to create a special police force to enforce the prohibition of alcohol.

After leaving political office, he returned to Bowdoin College. He was originally offered the presidency of the new state university in Orono, but declined, hoping for the same position at his alma mater. That came in 1871, he was appointed president of Bowdoin and remained in that position until 1883, when he was forced to resign because of ill health from his war wounds. He also served as an ex-officio trustee of nearby Bates College from 1867 to 1871.

In January 1880, there was a dispute about who was the newly elected governor of Maine, and the Maine State House was occupied by a band of armed men. The outgoing governor, Alonzo Garcelon, summoned Chamberlain, the commander of the Maine Militia, to take charge. Chamberlain sent home the armed men, and arranged for the Augusta police to keep control. He stayed in the State House most of the twelve-day period until the Maine Supreme Judicial Court's decision on the election results was known. During this time, there were threats of assassination and kidnapping, and on one occasion, he went outside to face down a crowd of 25–30 men intending to kill him, and both sides offered bribes to appoint him a United States senator. Having gratified neither side in the dispute, he did not become a senator, and his career in state politics ended.

Later life
After resigning from Bowdoin in 1883, he went to New York City to practice law. Chamberlain served as Surveyor of the Port of Portland, Maine, a federal appointment, and engaged in business activities, including real estate dealings in Florida (1885) and a college of art in New York, as well as hotels. He traveled to the West Coast to work on railroad building and public improvements. From the time of his serious wound in 1864 until his death, he was forced to wear an early form of a catheter with a bag and underwent six operations to try to correct the original wound and stop the fevers and infections that plagued him, without success.

In 1893, 30 years after the battle that made the 20th Maine famous, Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg. The citation commends him for his "Daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top." As in many other Civil War actions, controversy arose when one of his subordinate officers stated that Chamberlain never actually ordered a charge at Gettysburg. The claim never seriously affected Chamberlain's fame or notability however. This original medal was lost, and later rediscovered in 2013, and donated to the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick, Maine. A second, redesigned medal issued in 1904 is currently housed at Bowdoin College.
[Note: In 1898, Chamberlain at the age of 70 and afflicted with his multiple Civil War wound disabilities, offered his services to the nation again volunteering to command US Army forces in the Spanish American War. Despite persistent efforts with Acting Secretary Alger in the War Department and the President he was denied the opportunity due to his health issues. Ironically, his principal opponent at Gettysburg, former Colonel William C. Oates CSA (15th Alabama Regiment), was appointed in his place as a Brigadier General of US Volunteers.]

In 1905, Chamberlain became a founding member of the Maine Institution for the Blind, in Portland, now called The Iris Network. Chamberlain's wife herself was visually impaired, which led him to serve on the organization's first board of directors.

Beginning with his first election as governor of Maine and continuing to the end of his life, Chamberlain was active in the Grand Army of the Republic. Despite continual pain and discomfort from his wounds of 1864, he made many return visits to Gettysburg and delivered speeches at soldiers' reunions. He made his last known visit on May 16 and 17, 1913, while involved in planning the 50th anniversary reunion. Because of deteriorating health, he was unable to attend the reunion less than two months later.

Death
Chamberlain died of his lingering wartime wounds in 1914 in Portland, Maine, at the age of eighty-five. He is interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Maine. Beside him as he died was Dr. Abner O. Shaw of Portland, one of the two surgeons who had operated on him in Petersburg 50 years previously. A full study of his medical history strongly suggests that it was complications from the wound suffered at Petersburg that resulted in his death. He was the last Civil War veteran to die as a result of wounds from the war and considered by some the last casualty of the war.

Legacy

Chamberlain's home, located across Maine Street from the Bowdoin College campus, is now the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum and is owned by the Pejepscot Historical Society, which maintains an extensive research collection on Chamberlain. Memorabilia on display include the minié ball that almost ended his life at Petersburg, his original Medal of Honor, and Don Troiani's original painting of the charge at Little Round Top. Tours of the home are conducted by volunteer docents from late May until mid-October.

US Route 1A is carried across the Penobscot River between Bangor and Brewer, Maine by the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge, a two-lane steel plate girder bridge opened on November 11, 1954.

The village of Chamberlain, Maine, in the town of Bristol, is named for him.

Medal of Honor
In September 2013, the original Medal of Honor awarded to Chamberlain in 1893 was donated to the Pejepscot Historical Society, which owns the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick, after being authenticated by the Maine State Museum, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Awards and Decorations Branch of the Department of the Army. The donor, who chose to remain anonymous, found it in the back of a book bought during a church sale at the First Parish Church in Duxbury, Massachusetts; Chamberlain's granddaughter Rosamond Allen, his last surviving descendant, had donated her estate to that church upon her death in 2000. Chamberlain's alma mater of Bowdoin College has a 1904 Medal of Honor belonging to Chamberlain in its possession. The original 1893 medal is on display at the Chamberlain Museum.

Bibliography

 Maine, Her Place in History, his speech at the Centennial Exhibition (1877)
 Ethics and Politics of the Spanish War (1898)
 Universities and Their Sons, editor (1898)
 Property: Its Office and Sanction (1900)
 De Monts and Acadia (1904)
 Ruling Powers in History (1905)
 The Passing of the Armies (1915)
A special edition of his Paris report on "Education in Europe" was published by the United States government (Washington, 1879).

Command history
Lieutenant Colonel (second in command under Adelbert Ames), 20th Maine (August 8, 1862)
Colonel, commanding 20th Maine (May 20, 1863)
Commanding 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps (August 26 – November 19, 1863)
Commanding 1st Brigade (June 6–18, 1864)
Brigadier General of Volunteers (June 18, 1864)
Commanding 1st Brigade (November 19, 1864 – January 5, 1865)
Commanding 1st Brigade (February 27 – April 11, 1865)
Brevet Major General of Volunteers (March 29, 1865)
Commanding 1st Division (April 20 – June 28, 1865)
Commanding 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, Wright's Provisional Corps, Middle Department (June 28 – July, 1865)
Mustered out of volunteer service (January 15, 1866)

In popular culture
Chamberlain emerged as a key character in Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize–winning historical novel about Gettysburg, The Killer Angels (1974), and in a prequel novel by his son, Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals (1996). Chamberlain is portrayed by actor Jeff Daniels in the films Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003), based on the books. His portrayal in these books and films significantly enhanced Chamberlain's reputation in the general public, making him into a more popular and well known figure.

Tom Eishen's historical novel Courage on Little Round Top is a detailed look at Chamberlain as well as Robert Wicker, the young Confederate officer who fired his pistol at Chamberlain's head during the 20th Maine's historic charge down Little Round Top.

Ken Burns's 1990 nine-part PBS film The Civil War featured Chamberlain prominently.

Steve Earle's song "Dixieland" from his album The Mountain refers to Chamberlain and the Battle of Gettysburg:

The book The Lost Regiment and the subsequent series by author William R. Forstchen chronicle the adventures of the "35th Maine", a Union regiment from Maine having been transported to an alien planet. The regiment was based on the 20th Maine, with the main character and commander of the regiment, Andrew Lawrence Keane, also being a college professor.

In the alternate history 2003 novel Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, written by Forstchen and Newt Gingrich, Chamberlain is featured as a character.  In the book, an alternate history of the Civil War, Chamberlain makes a heroic stand similar to the real life battle on Little Round Top.  Unlike in real life, Chamberlain is overwhelmed, wounded, and forced to surrender, but he survives and returns in the third book of the series, Never Call Retreat (2005).

A musical, Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, with book and lyrics by Sarah Knapp and music by Steven M. Alper was commissioned by Maine State Music Theatre in 1993 and received its premiere at that theatre in July, 1996. That production starred Mark Jacoby as Chamberlain and Sarah Knapp as Fannie Chamberlain. It was revived in a revised form by Maine State in 2014. According to its bookwriter, the musical is "an exploration of the perennial conflict between public duty and private devotion. This musical ... not only celebrates a great Civil War hero, but also examines a universal theme: How a person's sense of duty and destiny affect his personal life."

Another Forstchen work, "A Hard Day For Mother", is a short story from the first volume in the variety anthology series Alternate Generals edited by Harry Turtledove. That work is based on the premise of: "what if Chamberlain was on the Confederate side at Gettysburg?" The story assumes that a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War Chamberlain had taken a teaching job at a Virginia military academy and developed a love for the state of Virginia; that with the outbreak of war he joined the Confederate side under Robert E. Lee; that in Gettysburg he gained the Little Round Top for the Confederacy, fighting against his own brother Tom commanding the 20th Maine; that thereby Chamberlain won the battle and the entire war for the Confederacy; that he later remained in the independent Confederacy and was eventually elected its President; and that his reconciliatory attitude towards the North led to Confederacy and the United States eventually holding referendums and freely deciding to re-unite in 1914, following Chamberlain's death.

On the Showtime TV series Homeland, the character Nicholas Brody tells his family the story of Chamberlain, encouraging them to emulate him.

In the song "Ballad of the 20th Maine" by The Ghost of Paul Revere (Maine's official state ballad):
The book Percy Jackson and the Sea Of Monsters by author Rick Riordan hints at Chamberlain being a demigod, stating that he single-handedly changed the course of the civil war.

See also

 List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Battle of Gettysburg
 List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: A–F
 List of American Civil War generals (Union)

References

Citations

General references

Further reading

 Rasbach, Dennis A. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign: His Supposed Charge from Fort Hell, his Near-Mortal Wound, and a Civil War Myth Reconsidered. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2016. .

External links

 Joshua Chamberlain Seeks Assistance for Jaffa Adams Colonists, 1867 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
 Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Digital Archive at Bowdoin College
 Chamberlain-Adams Family Papers. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
 www.joshualawrencechamberlain.com A collection of primary resources
 Index to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's Pages
 Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Biography
 Joshua Chamberlain: Maine's Favorite Son
 Tribute to Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
 Joshua L. Chamberlain, a Biographical Essay
 Medal of Honor recipients on Film
 Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick, Maine Managed by the Pejepscot Historical Society
 The Iris Network (formerly the Maine Institution for the Blind)
 

1828 births
1914 deaths
19th-century American politicians
Businesspeople from Maine
American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor
American Congregationalists
Educators from Maine
Bangor Theological Seminary alumni
Bowdoin College alumni
Bowdoin College faculty
Governors of Maine
Historians of the American Civil War
Maine Republicans
People from Brewer, Maine
People of Maine in the American Civil War
Politicians from Bangor, Maine
Politicians from Portland, Maine
Presidents of Bowdoin College
Republican Party state governors of the United States
Union Army generals
United States Army Medal of Honor recipients
Writers from Brunswick, Maine
Military personnel from Maine
Burials at Pine Grove Cemetery (Brunswick, Maine)
American people of English descent
19th-century American businesspeople
Dublin Liberal Unionist Association was a grouping founded in Dublin Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century of Liberal supporters who supported the Union between Britain and Ireland. They supported Chamberlins Trade and Tariff policies.
It supported Liberal Unionist figures in city politics, and candidates in the 1906 General Election.
People involved in the Association included Major George Bernard O'Connor, Henry Forbes, the socialist John Lincoln Mahon and the barrister James Alexander Porterfield Rynd who acted as its chairman.

References

20th century in Ireland
Unionism in Ireland Joseph Edgar "J. E." or "Ed" Chamberlin (August 6, 1851 – July 6, 1935) was an American journalist, columnist, essayist, and editor whose work appeared in newspapers in Chicago, Boston, and New York, as well as in national magazines and journals, beginning in 1871 and continuing until his death in 1935. Beginning in the late 1880s, he wrote a popular column for the Boston Evening Transcript called "The Listener"  and thus became known throughout New England as "The Listener of the Transcript." He was a friend and mentor to many aspiring writers, photographers, musicians, and artists, and maintained a close friendship with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan for over 40 years. He died in South Hanson, Massachusetts in 1935 and is buried in his birthplace of Newbury, Vermont.

Early life 
Chamberlin was born in Newbury, Vermont, the youngest child of Abner and Mary (Haseltine) Chamberlin. The Chamberlins were descendants of one of Newbury's founding families. Joseph Edgar's early years were spent in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, where his father, a farmer, moved in 1857. The Chamberlins were staunch and vocal abolitionists, frequently housing itinerant abolitionist speakers and politicians at their home. Young "Ed" was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, and though he wanted to attend college, the family could not afford it, so he was forced to find a trade. He followed his older brother, Everett Chamberlin, already established in the newspaper business, to Chicago in 1868. While there, he provided himself with what he called a "classical" education by reading extensively at the nearby Chicago Public Library.

Career 
Chamberlin began his newspaper career as a seventeen-year-old proofreader for the Chicago Evening Post, where his brother Everett was employed. In October 1871, he was one of the first eyewitnesses on the scene of the Great Chicago Fire and his reports were some of the first to go out to the world. He then worked for a short time in Indianapolis for the Indianapolis Daily Journal before returning to Chicago and work for the Chicago Times in 1873. He rose to a managing role at the Times before resigning and moving east in 1880.

He worked briefly as an editor for the Daily Herald in Newport, Rhode Island and the Daily News in Fall River, Massachusetts before moving to Boston in 1884. There, he was the first editor of the Evening Record, and then an editor for the Daily Advertiser. He joined the Boston Evening Transcript in 1886 as an editorial and general writer.

In 1887, Chamberlin began writing a daily column for the Transcript called "The Listener," and subsequently became known throughout New England as "The Listener of the Transcript." He was also attached to The Youth's Companion as editor and writer.

He moved to New York in 1901 and worked for the New York Evening Mail and New York Evening Post. While at the Mail, he worked alongside C. L. Edson and Rube Goldberg.

Over the course of his career, he also authored several books. He wrote two companion books, The Listener in the Town and The Listener in the Country (Copeland and Day, 1896), John Brown (Beacon, 1899), an alternate history book titled The Ifs of History (1907), and Nomads and Listeners (Riverside, 1937). In 1921, he published a limited edition tribute to his son Raymond, killed in action during World War I in Marcheville, France, called The Only Thing for a Man to Do.

He also wrote for national magazines such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Weekly, and The Sunday Magazine.  In 1930, he edited The Boston Evening Transcript: A history of its first hundred years.

Family and friendships 
In 1873, Chamberlin married Ida Elizabeth Atwood, the daughter of Charles Atwood, a colleague of his at the Chicago Times. Together they had five children and one adopted son. Several of their children died in infancy or childhood.

In 1888, through his Transcript writing and advocacy for the Perkins School for the Blind, Chamberlin began a friendship with Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. Keller and Sullivan began visiting Chamberlin and his family at their home called Red Farm in Wrentham, Massachusetts when Helen was nine years old. She often spent weekends and holidays with the Chamberlins and lived with them for a year in 1896-97. Early in the friendship, she began calling Chamberlin "Uncle Ed," which she did until his death more than 40 years later.

Red Farm, the Chamberlins' home on the shores of what was then called King Phillip's Pond, was a gathering place for literary, political, and artistic figures of the day. Notables such as Edward Everett Hale, Louise Imogen Guiney, F. Luis Mora, F. Holland Day, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Bliss Carman, Bradford Torrey, Hamlin Garland, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Native American women artists Zitkala-Sa and Angel de Cora congregated at Red Farm and they, along with Keller and Sullivan, have left archival material that illuminates Chamberlin's career, home, and family life.

His career brought him into contact with many notables of the day. It was said that he interviewed every president of the U.S. from Ulysses S. Grant to Calvin Coolidge. William Dean Howells and Edward Everett Hale both sent congratulatory letters to be read at an event in Boston celebrating the publication of his Listener books in 1896.

Later years and death 
Chamberlin's career as a writer and editor spanned more than 60 years. His first wife Ida Atwood Chamberlin died in 1914. Chamberlin married Leonilda Farness (b. Farnese) in 1915. She died in 1923. He married Jenny LeRoyer Chamberlin in 1926.
Chamberlin continued to write for the Transcript until his death in South Hanson, Massachusetts on July 6, 1935. He is buried in the Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury, Vermont. Upon his death, tributes were written in publications that included Editor and Publisher magazine and the New York Herald Tribune. The former described Chamberlin as "the dean of Boston editors," and added that the Herald-Tribune said "he was one of the most widely recognized staff writers of his times."
He was survived by his daughters Helen Chamberlin Dodd, Elisabeth Chamberlin Darling, Eleanor Chamberlin Boshco, and adopted son Phillip Chamberlin.

References 

1851 births
1935 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
Editors of Massachusetts newspapers
Journalists from Indiana
Journalists from Illinois
American columnists
19th-century American journalists
19th-century American male writers
Journalists from Vermont
People from Spring Prairie, Wisconsin
Journalists from Wisconsin
American magazine editors
American magazine journalists